Peter Petrelli

Template:Heroes character box Peter Petrelli is a fictional character on the NBC drama Heroes, played by Milo Ventimiglia. He has the ability to mimic the powers of other superhuman characters. Sensitive and compassionate, he is also defined by his complex relationship with his older brother, Nathan.

Character history

Discoveries

In the premiere episode, Peter Petrelli is a nurse living in New York City. Differences between Peter and Nathan, an ambitious politician focused on his congressional campaign, cause tensions between the two.

The tensions are exacerbated when Peter starts having extraordinarily vivid dreams of flying. He confides in Nathan, who passes them off as a sign of psychological distress. Peter summons Nathan to witness as he jumps off a building to prove he can fly. However, it's Nathan who flies, catching Peter as he falls. Peter blacks out after the brothers lose their grip on each other, waking up in the hospital with muddled recollections of what happened. Nathan claims neither of them flew and Peter is led to believe he's going crazy. Attempting to discover the truth, Peter threatens to jump from another rooftop if Nathan doesn't tell him what really happened. Nathan admits that they both flew. Peter first thinks Nathan is only telling him what he wants to hear, until Nathan points out that Peter is levitating as they argue. Peter's later attempts to fly, when away from his brother's presence, are initially unsuccessful.

Peter decides to quit his job as a nurse. He confides to Simone Deveaux, the daughter of a dying man Peter has cared for, that he has loved her ever since he first saw her. The two of them spend a night together, even though Simone doesn't know how she truly feels about him.

The first hints of Peter's greater destiny come when he is contacted by a future version of Hiro Nakamura, a man with the power to manipulate time and space. Hiro has come to give Peter a message: "Save the cheerleader, save the world." He urges Peter to be "the one we need". He tells Peter to go and visit Isaac Mendez, a painter and ex-boyfriend of Simone.

"Save the cheerleader, save the world."

Peter visits Isaac and convinces him to see past their amorous connection to Simone. He learns that Isaac has predicted an explosion will happen in New York soon, and they are both convinced saving this unknown cheerleader is connected to averting the catastrophe. While in Isaac's company, Peter also confirms that his superhuman ability involves copying those of others, when he mimics the Issac's powers. He finishes a painting of Issac's showing the cheerleader being killed by Sylar.

In the episode "Nothing to Hide", Peter has a dream of telling Simone's ailing father that he can fly. Simone comes to his apartment and tells Peter that her father has died after telling her that he had dreamed of flying with Peter and is worried about the state of the world. Peter told him that there are people who care and who will save the world from destruction. Simone then tells Peter that she has sold the painting by Isaac to a man named Linderman in Las Vegas. Peter believes the painting will help him to save the world.

Peter goes to Nathan's house, hoping that his brother can help convince Linderman to give up the painting. When he gets there, he finds Nathan, their mother, and Nathan's family attending a brunch with a newspaper reporter. Peter saves his brother from adultery charges by claiming Nathan was arranging for a private clinic to treat Peter's mental illness. That night, Nathan tells Peter he was temporarily kidnapped in Vegas, and warns that people will want to lock them up if they realize the two of them have powers. Peter is skeptical of Nathan's story.

In "Homecoming", Simone shows Peter a photograph of the painting and has helpfully tracked the school down for him. Peter goes to the high school in Odessa, Texas and meets Claire Bennet, the cheerleader with superhuman regenerative abilities. Sylar soon shows up to kill Claire, and Peter tries to hold him off while Claire escapes. During their battle, Peter tackles Sylar and the pair fall off the roof of Union Wells High. Sylar survives the fall, but it seems as if Peter hasn't. However, when Claire shows up, Peter mimics her healing powers. As he begins resetting his bones, he asks Claire to call the police. They show up while Peter is still covered in his own blood and arrest him.

The episode "Six Months Ago" reveals why Peter believes he has a metaphysical connection with his brother. During a dream, he sees Nathan and his wife get into the car accident that paralyzes her from the waist down. He realizes the accident was partially caused by Nathan's first use of his flying ability (leaving the car with no driver). Peter later asks Nathan about "the other car" (one chasing Nathan's in the dream) involved in the accident, a detail no one else knew except for Nathan and Heidi.

In "Fallout," Peter is in jail when he has a vision in which he is visited by his brother, who metamorphoses into Sylar. He is then interviewed by telepathic LA cop, Matt Parkman, during which they telepathically discuss Sylar's attack on Union Wells High. He tells him Claire Bennet was the real target. Claire visits Peter in his cell later, believing he shares her powers, and tells him that he is her hero. A short time later, Nathan gets Peter out of jail. Peter's health is visibly and quickly deteriorating for yet unknown reasons. On their way out of the building, he passes out and has a vision in which he sees the other main characters in a city street just before he explodes. In the vision, as Nathan walks up to him, he begins to yell out and explode. After recovering from the vision, Peter tries to explain it to Nathan, but stops breathing and falls unconscious.

Waking up

Peter is comatose. In his comatose state, Peter continues to have the same vision, with a little variation. Eventually, a new face appears in his dreams. This man, a tall, bearded Englishman, is shown laughing. Another new scene indicates that Peter may be mimicking Ted Sprague's radioactive powers. Eventually, Peter wakes up, and decides that his next destination is "the desert". He makes travel plans, looking for a place where nuclear testing has been done. Las Vegas is recommended. As he's put on hold, he notices the Englishman from his dreams stealing from a purse. Peter confronts the man, who is shocked that someone can see him. Calling himself "Claude Rains", he tells Peter to leave him alone. However, Peter instead insists "Claude" teach him how to control his abilities. "Claude" declines, and tells Peter to stop following him. Peter returns to his apartment to find Mohinder and Nathan there. Mohinder believes he can help him while Nathan is insistent that Peter not go running off again. To get away, Peter pretends to consider their help, then runs out the door. Mohinder and Nathan see an open window and assume Peter has flown out it. However, this was misdirection, as Peter is actually hiding invisibly with Claude. Claude agrees to train him.

Training

The lessons commence in "Distractions". Claude tells Peter to separate himself from his loved ones. Peter fiercely disagrees, but Claude says that caring about people—particularly Nathan—is holding him back. Claude reminds Peter that he must learn to harness the powers he's previously mimicked intentionally (or face exploding), and without their inherent users present. Then, Claude pushes Peter off a tall building and tells him to fly. Peter falls onto a taxicab suffering fatal injuries, but survives by remembering Claire Bennet and mimicking her powers. Peter realizes that he does not need to push people out of his mind; he just needs to remember how those people made him feel to regain use of their abilities. He then starts to lose control thinking about too many others at once leading Claude to knock him out. It is also revealed that Nathan Petrelli is the real father of Claire Bennet, thus making Peter her uncle.

In "Unexpected", Peter is shown to have more control over the abilities he has absorbed. During a sparring session with Claude, Peter uses telekinesis to shield himself from a blow, which puzzles Claude since none of Peter's acquaintances has that power. Peter surmises that he must have picked it up from the man who attacked him in Texas. Later in the episode, when assaulted by Mr. Bennet and the Haitian, due to a betrayal by Isaac, Peter uses telekinesis, then flight to save himself and Claude. After their escape, Claude blames Peter for bringing Bennet and Haitian after him (revealing that he has remained invisible in order to elude them) and leaves Peter on his own.

Peter then confronts Isaac about his betrayal but Isaac is adamant that what he was doing would save the world. Peter, however, concludes jealousy was Isaac's main motivation. When Isaac tries to shoot him, Peter becomes invisible. Thoroughly unnerved, Isaac begins to firing indiscriminately and accidentally hits Simone twice in the chest as she walks through the door. Peter cradles Simone as he and Isaac both watch her die.

In "Parasite", Peter goes to see his brother, who makes an anonymous call to the police about Simone and suggests that Peter go to see Mohinder Suresh. When Peter arrives, he is attacked by Sylar, who begins to slice open Peter's head. Before Sylar can kill Peter, however, Peter begins to regenerate and Sylar pauses (".07%"). Peter then uses his telekinesis to throw Sylar across the room and immediately becomes invisible. Sylar uses his telekinesis to spray shards of glass around the room, and one becomes embedded in the back of Peter's head, rendering him dead and visible. Mohinder manages to knock Sylar unconscious and escapes with Peter's dead body, taking it to Nathan's home. Everyone believes him to be dead, but Claire - drawing from her own near death experience, finds and removes the glass in the back of Peter's head, allowing him to recover.

"How to Stop an Exploding Man"

In the episode "The Hard Part", Peter begins to take a more active role in the events that are unfolding before him. He is trying to convince Claire to stay because he believes that she is the key to keeping him from exploding. When he and Claire go to see Nathan they both see that he is talking to Thompson, Mr. Bennet's former boss. Claire then proceeds to tell Peter that Thompson works for Linderman. They now suspect that Nathan is in league with Mr. Linderman. After this discovery they decide to wait for Ted who is currently in New York with Mr. Bennet and Matt Parkman trying to get rid of Linderman's new tracking device at the place Peter drew with Issac's power. The moment Peter comes in range of Ted, Peter's hands begin to glow. Peter manages to reign the newly-absorbed power in, then decides to leave the city with Ted and Claire while Mr. Bennet and Matt destroy the tracking system.

While attempting to leave the city, Sylar interferes and reports Ted's whereabouts to the FBI. When they come to arrest Ted, Peter escapes with Claire using his invisibility to cloak them. Their next attempt to escape is also inadvertently thwarted by Sylar, who attacks the prison transport holding Ted on the main road out of town. Realizing that Sylar now has Ted's power, Peter assumes Sylar will become the bomb instead of him.

In the season finale, Peter eventually confronts Sylar face to face in an attempt to stop him. Matt Parkman and Niki Sanders intervene as well, and Hiro is the one to finish Sylar off by impaling him with a sword. However, instead of Sylar becoming the bomb as he had thought, Peter's own lack of control leads to him becoming the bomb instead. Although he does become the bomb, Peter doesn't destroy the city. Nathan, having been convinced to save his brother by Claire, flies Peter high into the stratosphere, where a large explosion is then observed. After the explosion, neither Peter nor Nathan's fate is revealed. There is a trail of blood from where Sylar's body had been to a nearby sewer manhole.

Four Months Later

The beginning of season 2 features an alive but amnesic Peter found half-naked and handcuffed inside a cargo container at a port in Cork, Ireland. Wearing a necklace similar to the Haitian's and shorn of his long trademark hair, Peter is accused of stealing the cargo container's contents by the group of thugs who find him named Ricky, Will and Tuko. Ricky, the leader, tells Peter his name and offers a box containing items that are clues to Peter's identity (Credit Cards, Drivers License, etc.) if he does a job for them.

Peter agrees and telepathically discovers that Will is going to betray the Ricky and Tuko for the money, though Ricky and Tuko don't believe him. During the job, Peter uses telekinesis to stop the guards so that Ricky and the gang can sucessfully steal the money. Caitlin, Ricky's sister drives the get-away car. She is much aware of Peter's newly rediscovered abilities and has sworn to keep his secret. When they arrive back at the Wandering Rock Pub, just as Peter said, Will betrays Ricky and Tuko and holds a gun to them, demanding the money. Peter uses his telekenitic ability to stop this from happening, however, in the course of this action Peter is shot twice by Will. Peter uses his regenerative abilities, which he gained from Claire, to discharge the bullets from his body and telekineticly hold him against a wall and choke him.

He is stopped from killing the Will by Caitlin. Will runs away. He is afterwards accepted by the Ricky and decides to leave his identity a secret for fear that he used to be a bad person, even though Caitlin states she believes he is a good person. He kisses her, and as they kiss her body glows and pulses with radiation. Also a hint of a alter personality after the kiss he shows a sgs (the tatoo like that on Jessica's back) appear then dissapear.

Peter exhibits both new and old powers including phasing, telekinesis, healing, super strength, and electric blasts. Meanwhile, his family and friends still mourn his death.

Alternate future

In the alternate future of "Five Years Gone", it is revealed that Peter was the bomb that destroyed New York City. The rest of the world believes that it was Sylar who had exploded because Nathan had set him up as a scapegoat in order to protect his brother. In this alternate future, Peter resides in Las Vegas with Niki Sanders, who he is now romantically involved with. He has a very prominent scar across his face, although it is never revealed how he acquired it. When he rescues Ando and "future Hiro" from Matt Parkman, he stops time and teleports them both away. He also has gained many more powers, including pyrokinesis, superhuman strength and speed, and electricity manipulation, though the latter two are only within the official graphic novels.

Powers and abilities

Peter has been described as an empath by Claude and has shown the ability to mimic other powers. According to Dr. Suresh, Peter's DNA re-sequences itself to mimic the abilities of those around him. This is not a conscious process. Whenever he is within the vicinity of someone with an ability his body automatically duplicates it. Originally once this person moved out of range Peter would no longer be able to mimic their power, but with the help of Claude he was able to learn how to indefinitely maintain abilities, summoning them at will.

To date Peter has demonstrated the following abilities (listed in the order of appearance):

Ability	Benefactor	Episode acquired	Episode first exhibited	Notes
Flight	Nathan Petrelli	Pre-"Genesis"	"Genesis"	Peter originally believes this power to be his own, until Nathan reveals his own ability. See Visions.
Precognition	Isaac Mendez	"Genesis"	"Hiros"	While Isaac is initially unable to use the ability without the use of heroin (a weakness that he later overcame), Peter has no such limitation.
Manipulating the space-time continuum	Hiro Nakamura	"Collision"	"Unexpected"	Acquires this ability after meeting Hiro's future self; Peter has so far only used Hiro's ability to freeze time, although in "Five Years Gone" he also uses Hiro's ability to teleport.
Spontaneous regeneration	Claire Bennet	"Homecoming"	"Homecoming"	The first power Peter is able to use without its owner being present; Peter has been fatally injured thrice, at one point healing only when Claire removed a shard of glass from his head.
Telekinesis	Sylar	"Homecoming"	"Unexpected"	This is the only power of Sylar's that Peter has been shown to use so far; it remains to be seen whether he can tap into Sylar's other stolen abilities.
Telepathy	Matt Parkman	"Fallout"	"Fallout"	See side effects
Invisibility	Claude	"Godsend"	"Godsend"	As shown in "Landslide", Peter can extend his invisibility to another person/object he is touching.
Radiation manipulation	Ted Sprague	"The Hard Part"	"The Hard Part"	Peter lacks control over this power, leading him to explode.
Superhuman strength	Niki Sanders	"How to Stop an Exploding Man"	"How to Stop an Exploding Man"	Having acquired this power from Niki during the Kirby Plaza battle, Peter is able to use it to injure Sylar
Electric manipulation	Unknown	Unknown	"Four Months Later…"	An amnesic Peter emits an electric blast to repel an attacker in "Four Months Later…".
Phasing	Unknown	Unknown	"Lizards"	Peter uses this ability to escape having his hands tied together in "Lizards".

Visions

Peter has several clairvoyant visions. The first two are related to his brother's flight ability, in which Peter himself is flying. He also sees Charles Deveaux in what appears to have been a shared dream, right before the elderly man dies. A later vision shows Peter exploding in downtown New York while other characters look on. Among these characters are D.L. Hawkins, Niki Sanders and Micah Sanders, a family whom he had never met before. Later, Claude, another character Peter had yet to meet, appears in a slightly altered vision Peter has while comatose. Unlike Isaac's paintings or Hiro's experiences in the future, Peter's visions hinted at the actual season's ending or often guided him toward that outcome. That is, they were not visions of the future per se, but were perhaps insights into Peter's destiny.

In the first season finale, Peter has an ill-defined experience which takes him to the day that he first met Charles Deveaux. It is not made clear whether this experience is a vision, dream, or time travel; certain parts suggest he is actually experiencing the events, namely the fact that Charles confirms Peter as being invisible, but the experience takes place when Peter blacks out on the street.

Side effects

It has been shown that when Peter first absorbs an ability it may take him several minutes to gain control of that ability. Sometimes, when Peter acquires an ability, it can cause negative effects. When Peter mimics Matt Parkman's telepathy in "Fallout", they both get acute headaches from the sudden ability to hear each other's thoughts, similar in principle to audio feedback.

Mohinder Suresh states in "The Fix" that Peter could be very dangerous if he absorbs too many abilities or any unstable ones. This is shown when, after being in close proximity to a variety of characters with abilities, Peter is comatose for two weeks, as well as when he involuntarily causes a nuclear explosion after coming in contact with Ted Sprague. At the end of "The Hard Part", Peter involuntarily demonstrates Ted's power upon their first meeting.

In "Distractions", after learning he can mimic powers less passively, Peter has trouble controlling them. If he thinks of too many people at the same time, the recalled powers can overwhelm him. Claude tells him in this episode that his inability to control many powers at once is what may cause him to explode.